Vivek Ranadivé has a grand plan. I’m not sure that there are specifics to his ambitions, but the idea is to look at basketball in a different way and succeed. Ranadivé wants to test conventional wisdom. He wants to “think tank” his way to success, and he will continue to tinker until he either gets it right or gets run out of the club.
Like any good scientist, Ranadivé has created a lab to test his ideas. That lab is the Reno Bighorns of the NBA Development League.
One of the first things Ranadivé did after purchasing the Kings was to build a hybrid-affiliate with Reno, the nearest D-League team to Sacramento. In year one, Joel Abelson led the Bighorns to the playoffs, but there was little interaction between the parent club and its little brother up the hill.
Sure, 2013 second round pick Ray McCallum made his way to “The Biggest Little City in the World,” twice for some seasoning. The results were impressive when head coach Michael Malone was forced to turn to the prospect late in the season due to injuries.
There was also the short-lived Royce White experiment, which may have been foreshadowing to what we have seen this season. Ranadivé and his proxy Pete D’Alessandro are willing to take a gamble if there is even the slightest possibility for finding talent.
The plan was for Abelson to coach the team again this season, but a call by the New York Knicks was too good to pass up for the up-and-coming coach. Abelson’s departure opened the door for Ranadivé to tinker even further with his newly purchased sandbox.
Enter David Arseneault Jr. and his father’s vision of basketball. By now, we are well aware of “The System” Arseneault has installed in Reno. The frenetic-paced Grinnell offense leads to ridiculous scores and even more ridiculous individual performances. It’s a fun brand of basketball that before this year, would likely never have risen above the Division III college level. And now it is creating opportunities.
“It’s not just run-and-gun, fire up 3-pointers,” assistant general manager Mike Bratz told Cowbell Kingdom back in December. It’s a basketball system that’s not the normal system that people are used to seeing, but it is a system. It’s a fast-paced system that’s a fun type of system for the players.”
Sacramento has been reluctant to describe what it is that they are doing in Reno. Maybe it’s a fear of more “Jazz Director” talk or maybe being tech savvy is becoming about as cool as it was in 1990.
But Reno is a success story. That is, if the story is told correctly.
You don’t need the Bighorns to win a championship to be successful. Nor do you need to create an All-Star player. The scores are obscene and the basketball is unconventional, but there is more to the tale.
What David Arseneault Jr. has done is create a place that players want to go. They don’t understand the system, but they see the results. There is talent in the D-League, especially with players that have already performed at the NBA level. The Grinnell system has a way of showcasing a player’s ability in a way that makes them stand out and be noticed.
Quincy Miller and Jordan Hamilton asked to play for Reno. Miller turned the opportunity into two 10-day contracts in Sacramento followed by another with the Detroit Pistons. After dropping in a 21-point, 10-assist, 12-rebound triple-double last Thursday, Hamilton is on his way to the Los Angeles Clippers.
Lesser known assets like Brady Heslip and David Stockton have used their time in Reno to create something where there was probably nothing. A decent scorer at Baylor University, Heslip became a sensation with the Bighorns. Averaging 24.5 points per game in Reno on 44.3 percent shooting from long range, the 24-year-old shooting guard left for a healthy European contract. He is now playing in the Adriatic League for BC Igokea.
Stockton, the son of Hall of Fame guard John Stockton, is playing out a 10-day contract with the Sacramento Kings. After averaging 7.6 points and 4.3 assists in 28 minutes a game as a senior at Gonzaga last season, the 5-11, 165-pound Stockton put up 16.6 points and 7.9 assists in 26.8 minutes a night under Arseneault Jr.
Basically, Stockton went from an undrafted, non-prospect to an NBA player, at least temporarily.
Sometimes it’s in the packaging. If you want to sell the Grinnell system being run by the Reno Bighorns as the next big thing in the NBA, you are making a mistake. Newly hired George Karl is an innovator, but he’s not doing hockey-style line changes or pressing for 50 3-pointers in a game anytime soon.
But if you want to use Arseneault’s system to recruit players, highlight their positive attributes and prepare them to play at the NBA level, it might be believable.
“The System” might be just another gimmick. But it has helped create opportunities this season that have rarely been seen from the D-League. It has potential to develop certain, marketable skills for some players and give other players a chance to shine in a way that they weren’t able to before.
Vivek Ranadivé has made some bold plays in his first two years as owner of the Kings. Not all of his ideas have panned out, but the Reno experiment has shown early signs of success. Arseneault has earned a shot to continue his work.
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